WRC Polo set for Rally d'Italia debut

Volkswagen's Polo R WRC looks set to make its World Rally Championship debut on Rally d'Italia in October after an agreement has been reached between the German manufacturer and the FIA.

There had been speculation that the Polo R WRC would be seen for the first time on its home round of the series, next month's Rallye Deutschland, but such rumours have been scotched by the team's marketing chief Stefan Moser.

VW had been trying to run the Polo as zero car (course car) on the penultimate round of this year's World Rally Championship in Sardinia, but that request had been turned down.

"We can't run as zero car," said Moser, "but it looks like we will take a test run in Sardinia. We will not run competitively; they [the FIA] allow us to start the race, but we will not take times. We get the answer from the FIA on this subject this week."

The precise logistics of how and where a single Polo R WRC driven by Sebastien Ogier will feature in the running order has yet to be clarified

Ogier was pleased with the news of his Italian outing.

"I don't know too much detail about this," said the Frenchman, "but it was disappointing not run as zero car, so this could be a good solution.

"OK, we can't be in the classification, but I'm sure somehow it will be possible to finally make the comparison from our car against the others."